Former wrestler sues Activision over video game character

Former professional wrestler Booker T (real name Robert Huffman) has sued Activision claiming that a character in the video game maker’s Black Ops 4 resembles a character he created.

“G.I. Bro” is a character created by Huffman for a comic book series.  He even wrestled under this name for a short time.  The lawsuit claims that Huffman has filed for all the requisite copyrights for GI Bro and did this prior to Activision’s use of the character in its latest video game.

As a result, Huffman claims copyright infringement as a result and is requesting that a jury decide the case.  The lawsuit is filed in a federal court in Texas which is notorious for leniency of plaintiffs bringing patent law cases.  Perhaps Booker’s attorneys hope for the same “home field” advantage here.

It is worthy to note that several years back, UFC fighter Felice Herrig claimed that a Mortal Kombat character looked similar to in appearance and may have been based on her.  Fortunately for Herrig, she did not file a lawsuit and perhaps was looking for some publicity and a tie-in with the video game maker.

Booker T sues Activision by on Scribd

Alas, unfortunately for Booker this lawsuit is getting widely panned by copyright law experts.  The character created by Huffman may have similarities to the video game character named Prophet, but in the video game series there is a backstory for the character which would differentiate itself from the Bro character. Moreover, there is nothing similar between the two characters aside from the depiction.  They are not similarly named or have the same story or are from the same genre which are very important if you were to have a legitimate copyright infringement claim.

Also, we have Lindsay Lohan’s failed attempt at a right of publicity lawsuit when she attempted to sue Grand Theft Auto for a character that resembled the actress.  While not a copyright lawsuit, the opinion clearly made a distinction between characters that had similar features but did not break any type of copyright or right of publicity laws.